Archives

Hornby Dublo

Warning: include(/home/magesekw.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/eisemang/public_html/dreamcarriers.com/wp-content/plugins/exec-php/includes/runtime.php(42) : eval()'d code on line 1

Warning: include(): Failed opening '/home/magesekw.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/opt/cpanel/ea-php56/root/usr/share/pear') in /home/eisemang/public_html/dreamcarriers.com/wp-content/plugins/exec-php/includes/runtime.php(42) : eval()'d code on line 1Should British railways be re-nationalised?

Do you believe Britain's railways are better, and the country as a whole better off after privatisation?

There are some excellent answer above. All I would add is that it is probably to late now to renationalise the railways, and probably would cause more problems that it would solve. What does need to happen, however, is that the lumbering system that John Major's Tory Government bequeathed to the nation (and let's not forget it was the Tories who bungled the whole issue and carved up a national asset to the financial benefit of their city cronies) needs radical overhaul. The horizontal integration has to be abolished and steel reunited with wheel, without the nonsenses of Network Rail and rolling stock leasing companies. All this is doing is making vast sums of money for city accountants and lawyers which would be far better invested in the railways. We need to be looking at say four, or possibly five, regional companies in England, basically on the lines of the grouped companies, with separate companies for Wales and Scotland with each company totally responsible for it's own infrastructure and without the nonsense of constantly changing franchises - Railway Magazine recently calculated the phenomenal costs of every re-franchise from new uniforms to re-vinyling stock (after paying design consultants ). To American friends - the situation here is very different to Amtrak which is merely a public body running passenger services over privately owned tracks because the owners of those tracks don't want to run passenger trains.

Later edit. I not bty's comment about 'under new management' but, really, that is a fallacious argument. It's something of a quantum leap from the local grocers changing hands to a railway TOC. Obviously, sometimes it may be necessary - South East Trains a few years ago, sadly GNER on the collapse of its parent company and possibly First Great Western. But why on earth take the franchises away from Virgin Cross-Country, Midland Main Line and Anglia. It was a totally pointless, expensive and nonsensical exercise driven entirely but the stupidity of civil servants and Government ministers who couldn't run a Hornby Dublo set.